Uconn

UConn remains stuck in Big East Louisville jumps to ACC while Huskies left behind BY ED DAIGNEAULTRepublican-American

Connecticut kicker Chad Christen (13) celebrates with teammate Jory Johnson (28) after kicking a game-winning 30-yard field goal in the third overtime period against Louisville in a NCAA college football game in Louisville, Ky., Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012. Connecticut beat Louisville 23-20. (AP Photo/Garry Jones)

STORRS – UConn's desirable television market, rapid ascent up the national academic rankings and athletic successes were believed to be enough to sway the ACC to extend an invitation to replace Maryland.

Louisville trumped the Huskies on Wednesday based primarily on one thing: football superiority.

ACC presidents voted unanimously Wednesday morning to bring Louisville into the fold, taking a spot most figured would go to UConn based on its television market and much higher academic standing, among other things. However, Louisville administrators staged a successful coup with a strong presentation that leaves UConn standing in the purgatory that is the revamped Big East.

In the short term, it is a potentially a huge blow to UConn, which is the last remaining FBS-playing founding Big East school to still be a member of the league. The Huskies were a Big East newcomer in football in 2004. Today, they are the longest-tenured member of a football league that started in 1991.

Conference realignment, a massive shuffling of schools designed to produce the greatest football revenue possible, has once again left UConn behind, at least for the moment. Sources at UConn said they believe realignment is far from finished and that the Huskies will find a viable home in the future.

For now, they are in a Big East that is unrecognizable from the league Dave Gavitt founded in the late 1970s.

“I know this may seem like a tough moment for our fans, but we need to focus on the fundamentals of academic success across the university and in our athletic program as well,” UConn President Susan Herbst said in a statement. “We are winners -- we win, we like to win and we will continue to play the best possible opponents.

“We will be athletically successful, regardless of our conference, because of our successes in NCAA competition. We will keep building our winning record through the lens of a great university, that focuses on academics, not on the fluid and unpredictable nature of conference realignment. Again, I realize this is a difficult day, but when we focus on research, discovery, and student success, we'll never go wrong."

UConn apparently went wrong somewhere in its push to join the ACC, an effort that has been going on for some time. Herbst, a Duke graduate, and Manuel have spent plenty of hours wooing ACC officials but couldn't overcome what the ACC saw in Louisville.

Louisville recently took up residence in a new basketball arena, the KFC Yum! Center that might be the best college basketball arena in the country. It has poured millions into improving its athletic facilities, has a growing football fan base and arguably the most rabid college basketball following in the country.

UConn has suffered through dwindling attendance at football and men's and women's basketball games. Fundraising for a needed basketball practice facility proceeded at a snail's pace – ground hasn't even been broken on the project yet – the football team's stumbles the last two years have been an issue and the academic problems surrounding the men's basketball program haven't helped matters.

Louisville is viewed as having a higher football ceiling – Florida State and Clemson pushed hard for Louisville, according to reports -- and its men's basketball program is undoubtedly stronger at present. That trumped the fact that UConn's academic standing is much better than Louisville's (UConn ranks No. 63 and Louisville No. 160, according to U.S. News & World Report).

North Carolina chancellor Holden Thorp, chair of the ACC Council of Presidents who will resign at the end of the year because of an academic scandal at UNC, put the oft-touted academic claims aside Wednesday and went right to the crux of the matter.

“What the ACC needed most was to add the most exciting sports program that we could,” Thorp said on a conference call. “We feel very good about the addition of Louisville in every respect but our logic was that we wanted to make the ACC as exciting a sports conference as we possibly could and we felt that Louisville unambiguously did that for us the best."

Sources said there was more at play than that logic. Louisville openly wooed the Big 12 about 14 months ago, at the time when UConn was lobbying for ACC inclusion that eventually went to Syracuse and Pittsburgh. Sources believe Louisville will still jump at a Big 12 invitation, something that gave the Cardinals leverage over UConn and Cincinnati.

Louisville officials refuted those claims Wednesday. UConn sources believe the ACC chose Louisville because it can pluck UConn and/or Cincinnati at any point in time. That is not without merit.

“This is not an obituary,” a UConn source said. “The feeling is all this movement is not done and we will eventually find ourselves in a good situation. This is not the end of UConn athletics.”

ACC commissioner John Swofford said he sees no reason why the league would expand to 16 teams, which is what would have to happen for UConn to be invited if the league has no other defections. But he also stated in the past that the conference was happy with 12 teams.

Realignment and the chase for football money, mostly in television deals and the impending BCS playoff, is a fluid situation that UConn has to continually monitor. It has played its hand before, however, and come up empty.

“We have and will continue to monitor the situation regarding conference realignment and work to ensure that UConn is in the best position for the continued success of our athletic programs,” athletic director Warde Manuel said in a statement. “We are proud of the success of our coaches and student-athletes and the tradition that has been established of winning conference and national championships.”

UConn has won 10 combined national titles in men's and women's basketball in the last 17 years. It has won three men's titles in the last 13 years. The football program has shared two Big East titles in its short history and it commands a good part of the New York-Boston television market.

Still, the Huskies sit in a home that is crumbling around them. Optimism remains but UConn is stuck for the foreseeable future.

“I don't pay attention to it too much,” men's basketball coach Kevin Ollie said. “You definitely care but I don't worry about it. I'm going to coach my team. We're going to try to win conference tournaments and conference titles. I just really believe and have faith in Susan and Warde that they'll make the best decision for this university.”

Unfortunately for UConn, the decision is not theirs.

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